Word of the Day: Polyneuropathy
3 Comments Here’s a word we bet you’ve never heard before: polyneuropathy.
According to NIDA’s glossary, polyneuropathy is a “permanent change or malfunction of nerves.” “Poly” means “many,” so multiple nerves throughout the body such as in the arms, legs, hands, and feet are affected.
Possible symptoms of polyneuropathy are weakness, the feeling of pins and needles, or burning pain. In the most extreme cases, people can have trouble breathing and experience organ failure.
Many things can cause polyneuropathy, from genetics to a nutritional deficiency. But something else can also cause it—inhaling toxic, poisonous fumes, like those found in certain household products, in order to get high.
Long-term inhalant abuse can break down myelin, a fatty tissue that surrounds and protects some nerve fibers. Myelin helps nerve fibers carry their messages quickly and efficiently throughout the body and to the brain. Damaged myelin can lead to muscle spasms and tremors or even permanent difficulty with basic actions like walking, bending, and talking.
Don’t forget about sudden sniffing death, which can occur when inhaled fumes fill up the cells in the lungs with poisonous chemicals, leaving no room for the oxygen needed to breathe. This lack of oxygen can lead to nerve damage, suffocation, and even death.
Sudden sniffing death could occur during a person’s 100th time using inhalants or the first time. There’s no way to predict it.
Learn more about the consequences of abusing inhalants.
Word of the Day: Addiction
Addiction is defined as “A chronic, relapsing disease characterized by compulsive drug seeking and use—despite serious, even devastating consequences—and by long-lasting chemical changes in the brain.” When a person is addicted to a drug, finding and using that drug becomes the most important thing—more important than family, friends, school, sports, or money.
Not everyone will become addicted after they smoke a cigarette, drink alcohol, or take another drug, but even experimenting can raise your risk.
Have you heard about all these celebrities going in and out of rehab? That’s because addiction is a chronic, relapsing disease, like heart disease, hypertension, or diabetes that can be managed with treatment. And even though a person may beat their addiction with treatment, he or she is always at risk of relapse.
If you think you or a friend may be addicted to a substance, talk to a family member, medical professional, or other trusted adult to get help. You can also check out the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Treatment Facility Locator for treatment services near you.
To learn more about addiction, check out NIDA’s publication, Drugs, Brains, and Behavior: The Science of Addiction.
Word of the Day: Withdrawal
Ever wonder how “real” those grueling scenes on reality TV shows are when actors and other celebrities check in for addiction rehab and are shown going through withdrawal? After all, these folks are all in show biz!
SBB was curious about exactly how withdrawal happens. Withdrawal is defined as: symptoms that occur after chronic use of a drug is reduced or stopped.
But that’s just where the story begins. The symptoms of withdrawal vary a lot by drug, including how harsh they are and how long they last.
Consider prescription opioids, or painkillers. These are drugs like oxycodone (better known as Oxycontin) or hydrocodone (Vicodin). Opioids are typically prescribed for someone having severe pain, from the ache after a root canal to a chronic condition like back pain from an injury. When opioids are taken as prescribed, they can provide temporary relief from severe pain. But, they are also highly addictive and must be taken only as prescribed.
Some people will abuse a prescription drug by taking more than prescribed, or in ways not intended, which can lead to serious problems, including slowed heartrate and breathing and even addiction. And just like with “illegal” drugs, quitting is hard and can bring on withdrawal symptoms. Opioid withdrawal symptoms can include restlessness, muscle and bone pain, insomnia, diarrhea, vomiting, cold flashes with goose bumps (“cold turkey”), and involuntary leg movements. Yikes.
Taking away the chemicals that alter your brain through drugs of addiction is a pretty harsh reality. Your body and brain react strongly, even violently sometimes, because of missing the chemicals they’ve come to depend on through repeated drug use.
If a person knew from the start that quitting drugs would be so difficult, would they think twice before trying them? Probably so… Know the facts.
Word of the Day: Brain Reward System
A reward is a great way to encourage someone to do something. For example, if you offer a $300 reward to find your lost dog, people may be more likely to look for and return him or her. Or, if your parents offer to reward you for keeping your room clean or getting good grades, you have an incentive to do it.
Our brain has its own reward system. When we do certain things, the brain rewards us by making us feel good. The brain reward system is a brain circuit that causes feelings of pleasure when it is “turned on” by something we enjoy (see figure), like eating good food or being in love.
Whenever this reward circuit is activated, our brains note that something important is happening that is worth remembering and repeating.
Drugs activate the brain reward system in a similar manner. However, most drugs set off a surge of the brain chemical dopamine and therefore produce a much stronger and longer-lasting “artificial” pleasure sensation than natural highs. The effect of such a powerful reward strongly motivates people to take drugs again and again, even when they no longer really want to.
That can happen because drugs can actually reprogram the brain, so that every time a person takes the drug, the effect is a little weaker, and so they have to take more and more of it to get the same feeling. Eventually, a person can become addicted to the drug and compulsively use it, not so much to feel good but to keep from feeling bad. That’s the “sneaky” part of addiction.
NIDA provides lots of information about the how drug abuse targets the brain’s pleasure center:
Word of the Day: Limbic System
NIDA’s Glossary defines the limbic system as “a set of brain structures that generates our feelings, emotions, and motivations. It is also important in learning and memory.”
The limbic system, known informally as the “center for emotions,” is made up of five parts that help ensure our survival, including the ability to feel emotion, long-term memory storage, memory retrieval, and other behaviors directly connected with the emotions.
Each part has a separate role that makes the system run smoothly.
1) Amygdala—a tiny, almond-shaped structure commonly associated with processing emotions like anger, fear, and pleasure.
2) Cingulate Gyrus—a structure that receives messages from other parts of the brain and is essential in higher thinking functions, respiratory control, and memory, and learning.
3) Fornix—a tough, arch-shaped band that connects the two lobes of the cerebrum (the large rounded structure that makes up most of the brain and is divided into two hemispheres).
4) Hippocampus—a brain structure that is key to memory storage and retrieval; damage to it often means significant long-term memory loss.
5) Hypothalamus—a brain structure that regulates involuntary or automatic responses, including body temperature and food digestion.
Drugs disrupt the feelings and motivations that form the basis of normal behavior. A person abusing drugs is artificially feeling pleasure by interfering with the limbic system.
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National Institute on Drug Abuse | National Institutes of Health | U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
